Ten Big Ones by Stephanie Plum

She's accidentally destroyed a dozen cars. She's a target for every psycho and miscreant this side of the Jersey Turnpike. He mother's convinced she'll end up dead...or worse, without a man. She's Stephanie Plum and she kicks butt for a living (well, she thought it would sound good to put it that way...)

It begins as an innocent trip to the deli-mart, on a quest for nachos. But Stephanie Plum and her partner, Lula, are clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time. A robbery leads to an explosion, which leads to the destruction of yet another car. It would be just another day in the life of Stephanie Plum...except that she becomes the target of a gang. And the target of an even scarier, more dangerous force that comes to Trenton. With super bounty hunter Ranger out of town (and Stephanie on the outs with vice cop Morelli), she finds herself alone, with a decision to make: how to protect herself and where to hide while on the hunt for a killer known as the Junkman. There's only one safe place, and it has Ranger's name all over it-if she can find it. And if the Junkman doesn't find her first. With Lula riding shotgun and Grandma Mazur on the loose, Stephanie Plum is racing against the clock in her most suspenseful novel yet. Ten Big Ones is page-turning entertainment and Janet Evanovich is the best there is.

To The Nines by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum's got rent to pay, people shooting at her, and psychos wanting her dead every day of the week (much to the dismay of her mother, her family, the men in her life, the guy who slices meat at the deli . . . oh, the list goes on). An ordinary person would cave under the pressure.

But hey, she's from Jersey.

Stephanie Plum may not be the best bounty hunter in beautiful downtown Trenton, but she's pretty darn good at turning bad situations her way . . . and she always gets her man. In To the Nines, her cousin Vinnie (who's also her boss) has posted bail on Samuel Singh, an illegal immigrant. When the elusive Mr. Singh goes missing, Stephanie is on the case. But what she uncovers is far more sinister than anyone imagines and leads to a group of killers who give new meaning to the word hunter

Blood Noir by Laurell K Hamilton

Jason Schuyler is a werewolf. He's also one of Anita Blake's best friends, and sometimes her lover. And right now he needs her - not to be a vampire hunter, or a federal marshal, or a necromancer, or even for her rank in the werewolf pack, but because his father is dying. He needs Anita because she's a pretty woman who loves him, who can make him look like an everyday guy, who agrees to go home with him and help him say good-bye to the abusive father he never loved. The fact that Jason is about as much an everyday guy as Anita is a pretty woman is something they figure they can keep under wraps for a couple of days in a small town. How hard can that be?

Really, by now, Anita Blake should know better.

Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks this weekend to make a move. Somehow she has cut the connection that binds Anita and Jean-Claude, leaving Jean-Claude unable to sense what is happening. Dangerous even as she sleeps, buried in darkness for a thousand years somewhere beneath the old country of Europe, Marmee Noir reaches out toward power. She has attacked Anita before, but never like this. In Anita she senses what she needs to make her enemies tremble...

Editors' Intensive

I'm going to this conference in September :) http://writersdigest.com/events What I'll be doing:

* a full day of hands-on workshops, in a small-group setting, designed to help you understand why you might be getting rejected and how to improve your pitch and your manuscript
* plenty of time for interaction and questions relating specifically to your work and your experience
* information on how to get your book published, either traditionally or on your own
* insider advice on how to approach and query literary agents, editors, and publishers
* how to build your own site or blog—as well as use the newest online tools, including Facebook & Twitter—to build your career
* step-by-step information on building an author platform
* a community of like-minded writers to share information and experiences with (we are proud to say that our attendees continue to stay in touch with each other after the event!)
* a free subscription to WritersMarket.com, plus a list of potential markets for your work

This summer I'm applying for a membership with RWA and in the fall will be going for my Bachelor's degree in English Literature. I'm very excited to get my career going this year!

The Harlequin by Laurell K Hamilton

Anita Blake is about to face the challenge of her life. Into her world-a world already overflowing with power-have come creatures so feared that powerful, centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names. It is forbidden to speak of The Harlequin unless you've been contacted. And to be contacted by The Harlequin is to be under sentence of death.

Long-time rivals for Anita's affections, Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, alpha-werewolf, will need to become allies. Shapeshifters Nathaniel and Micah will have to step up their support. And then there's Edward. In this situation, Anita knows that she needs to call the one man who has always been there for her...

From Dead To Worse by Sookie Stackhouse

"The supernatural community in Bon Temps, Louisiana, is reeling from two hard blows - the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the man-made horror of the explosion at the vampire summit the month before in the up-north city of Rhodes. Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, yearning for things to get back to normal. But that's just not happening. Too many vampires - some friends, some not - were killed or injured, and her weretiger boyfriend, Quinn, is among the missing." "It's clear that things are changing, whether the Weres and vamps of her corner of Louisiana like it or not. And Sookie - friend of the pack and blood-bonded to Eric Northman, the leader of the local vampire community - is caught up in the changes." In the ensuing battles, Sookie faces danger, death... and, once more, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood flowing, her world will be forever altered.

Seven Up by Janet Evanovich

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum's got a lot on her mind. How does cigarette smuggler Eddie DeChooch, a fugitive so geriatric that even the hot-to-trot Grandma Mazur won't go out with him a third time, keep giving her the slip? How did a woman who died of a heart attack end up in DeChooch's garden shed with five bullet holes in her chest? Who stole a rump roast from Dougie and Mooner, the two lovable potheads who have decided to be crime fighters in Spandex bodysuits? Can Stephanie's perfect sister Valerie make it as a lesbian single mother without driving her family crazy? And--oh yeah--what should Stephanie do about that damn wedding dress on hold at Tina's Bridal Shoppe, waiting for her to decide whether vice cop Joe Morelli's really the one for her?

Busy Week

This week is going to be crazy. I'm finally getting down to brass tacks and revising All Because of You. There are a few minor details that need to be proofed and a few things I can expand on, such as one character's background. I'm going to be researching schizophrenia for my second novel as well and integrating that into one of my main characters. I know, it's a little spoiler, but necessary for the plot line. I'm also still submitting All That I'm Living For this week. I have had a few responses so far, but won't get most of them back for another month, to month and a half. I've been putting off writing for long enough and if I want results I have to work for them. Wish me luck. I'll post when I can!

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich

Low-rent bounty hunter Stephanie Plum reaches depths of personal experience that other women detectives never quite do. In Hot Six, for example, a sequence of new and hideous cars bite the dust; she finds herself lumbered with a policeman's multiply incontinent dog; and she has several bad skin days. All this when she is trying to prove her distinctly more competent colleague and occasional boyfriend Ranger innocent of a mob hit; avoid the heavies trailing her in the hope of finding him; and cope with a wife-abusing bail defaulter with nasty habits, such as setting Stephanie on fire. The peculiar joy of this series is the comic sense of place; Plum's New Jersey is one where everyone you meet, even the most dangerous of criminals, was at school with you, or stole your mother's first boyfriend, or gave your great-aunt a middling good recipe for meatloaf. Evanovich has built up an attractive cast of comic characters with Stephanie's extended family and those of her two boyfriends, the dashing and sinister Ranger and Joe Morelli (the cop whose family are only too keen on his marrying Stephanie). Hot Six will not disappoint either her fans or newcomers

High Five by Janet Evanovich

"Uncle Fred was someone I saw at weddings and funerals and once in a while at Giovichinni's Meat Market, ordering a quarter pound of olive loaf. Eddie Such, the butcher, would have the olive loaf on the scale and Uncle Fred would say, 'You've got the olive loaf on a piece of waxed paper. How much does that piece of waxed paper weigh? You're not gonna charge me for that waxed paper, are you? I want some money off for the waxed paper.'"

The speaker is Stephanie Plum, the glamorous if slightly ditzy bounty hunter from Trenton, New Jersey, and one of the most original creations in recent mystery fiction.

In this fifth entry in Janet Evanovich's increasingly popular series, Stephanie's problems are many and varied. She's not making enough money picking up FTAs (Failures to Appear) for her cousin Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds; her red-hot love affair with Detective Joe Morelli has cooled off; and her giant extended family is no help at all. For instance, Uncle Fred the cheapskate has disappeared, leaving behind some suspicious photographs of body parts in garbage bags and links to some really dangerous people.

When Stephanie turns to her friend and mentor, Ranger, for financial advice, he gets her involved in a gang of toughs doing instant evictions for landlords. (She complains to Ranger about the job and its dangers, prompting one of the hired thug to say, "Man, you don't like to get shot. You don't like to get arrested. You don't know how to have fun at all.")

Most of Stephanie's charm, of course, comes from her attitude--a combination of the brazen bravado that turns a failed lingerie buyer into a bounty hunter in the first place and the normal fears of a person in over her head.

Four To Score by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie Plum, the trash-talking New Jersey bail bondswoman of this popular series, is tracking Maxine Nowicki, who's wanted for skipping out on a car-theft charge lodged by her ex-boyfriend. Now the ex-boyfriend's very interested in getting back the love letters he supposedly wrote to Maxine. But what he's really looking for is the secret on which Evanovich hangs her screwball cast of colorful minor characters, including Sally Sweet, a cross-dressing drag queen; Lula, the 250-pound ex-hooker who works for Steph's boss; Cousin Vinnie, the bail bondsman; Grandma Mazur, who packs a Glock and is always looking for a little action; and Joyce, a wannabe bounty hunter who's been cramping Steph's style since she played pass the salami with Steph's ex-husband. The action doesn't get much farther from Trenton than the Jersey Shore, but when Steph's apartment and car are blown up by the others on Maxine's trail and she moves in with Joe Morelli, the handsome, arrogant cop she's been hung up on since high school, it gets hotter than the craps table in Atlantic City. Plum's fans won't be disappointed in this fourth outing in the series, and they're likely to be even more interested in the snappy patter and sexy shenanigans than in the mystery that holds it all togethe

Another Day

I've been querying All That I'm Living For since Friday. My goal is to submit at least one a day from my list of about thirty. So far so good. I haven't been working on All Because of You since last week. I need to do another read through and fix stupid mistakes. I've noticed this novel was more focused on the action rather than the romance and that just won't do. So this next read through is going to fix that. Then it's off to get reviewed. I'm still planning out the third novel as I do all of this. I have about 167 pages of that written and it just keeps growing. This one, like All Because of You, is a little more fun to write than my first novel, but I'm not sure why.

Dance Macabre by Laurell K Hamilton

"It was the middle of November. I was supposed to be out jogging, but instead I was sitting at my breakfast table talking about men, sex, werewolves, vampires, and that thing that most unmarried but sexually active women fear most . . ."

These days, Anita Blake is less interested in vampire politics than in an ancient, ordinary dread she shares with women down the ages: she may be pregnant. And, if she is, whether the father is a vampire, a werewolf, or someone else entirely, she knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal known for raising the dead and being a vampire executioner, is no way to bring up a baby.

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

Betrayed by her longtime vampire love, Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse must now not only deal with a possible new man in her life-the oh-so-handsome shapeshifter Quinn-but also contend with a long-planned vampire summit. With her power base weakened by hurricane damage to New Orleans, the local vampire queen is vulnerable to those hungry for a takeover. Soon, Sookie must decide what side she'll stand with. And her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe.

Day Seven

Edits and revisions are almost done. I'm working on the last two chapters and have run into a few road bumps. The nice thing about writing to an outline is your chapters can flow easily, but the problem, at least for me, is I don't write the chapters in order. I forget a lot of what I've already written, especially toward the end of a novel, but I will definitely have the second draft of All Because of You wrapped up by Friday. After that, I'll do another read through, fix some mistakes and hand it over to my trusted critic.

Micah by Laurell K Hamilton

There are lots of reasons to raise the dead - some private, some public. In this case, the feds have a witness who died before he could speak on the record. They want him raised so his testimony can be taken. So here I am, on a plane to Philadelphia, flying off to do my job.

But I’m not alone. Micah is with me. Micah, head of the St. Louis wereleopard pard. King to my Queen. The only one of my lovers who can stir my blood with just a glance from his chartreuse cat’s eyes. I was happy to have him at my side.

Until he mentioned that this will be our first time alone together. No Master Vampire. No Alpha Werewolf. Just me and Micah. And all my fears and doubts…

Day Three

In the past three days, I haven't had a ton of time to edit All Because of You. I'm planning on spending most of my time next week to get the second draft done, but I do have the first 5 chapters edited. Of course, these are the chapters that have already been edited at least once before I started writing the rest of the novel and I assume chapters 6-15 will take a lot more time and work.

Definately Dead by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse is off on another supernatural adventure, and this time she is bringing along Quinn, an event planner who happens to turn into a tiger under a full moon. The vampire queen of Louisiana has requested Sookie’s presence in New Orleans, and when any vampire, especially royalty, asks for something, it’s definitely a good idea to accommodate her. Sookie was planning to go to New Orleans anyway; her cousin, Hadley, left her estate to Sookie after her second death. Hadley was a vampire who met another untimely end, and she was also a close, personal friend to the queen.

Sookie arrives to find her cousin’s apartment sealed under a protective spell of a witch. She is also unfortunate enough to find a newly bitten vampire in the closet. The stasis spell kept the apartment frozen in time, and Sookie’s arrival broke the spell - and awoke the extremely hungry vampire. His presence in Hadley’s apartment raises a multitude of questions, and the queen is determined to find out what happened to her lover. Sookie finds herself once again embroiled in vampire politics and the target of attacks by an unknown enemy.

First Day

Today was the first day of revisions/edits for All Because of You. It went as well I had expected. I was only able to get a chapter and a half edited, but that means I only have 13.5 left. The goal is to have the second draft done by next weekend. I should have plenty of time to do it.